i saw a blog post somewhere a few months ago about grilled watermelon and then tried some on a salad a few days later. i didn't think about it again until a few days ago. shawn mention seeing grilled peaches somewhere. we had to try it. i looked at a few recipes and understood basically what shawn was going to need to do with the fruit on the grill. but what were we going to have to go with the peaches?

(sidenote: i don't grill. i don't go near the grill. i'm a total klutz and will set myself or at the very least the dog on fire. nobody wants that. so, i take care of the things that go with the grilled things - desserts, sides, etc.)

cut peaches along the seam all the way around and twist halves off the pit. vrush cut sides with vegetable oil. cook, cut side down, on a hot grill until fruit has grill marks, 3 to 4 minutes. turn over, sprinkle cut sides with brown sugar. cover grill and cook until sugar is melted and fruit is tender, 10 to 15 minutes. cool to room temperature. serve with a scoop of ice cream.

we've been eating A LOT of vegetables. we've been going to the farmers market every week and loading up. we roast or grill them and make tacos. sometimes with beans, sometimes without. never with cheese or sour cream (we've been no dairy lately) but always with avocado. and salsa. today, we added spinach. its our current favorite meal. after all, who doesn't LOVE tacos?

where has everybody likes sandwiches been all my life? my first introduction to jeannette was on poppytalk last fall. this recipe was posted and i baked them THAT DAY and OHMYGOD they were so good. i believe i was following too many blogs before this particular post and i just somehow missed her previous posts on poppytalk. believe me, after those cookies i paid closer attention. i started to follow jeanette (aka kickpleat) on twitter and started to follow her blog. i've tried lots of her recipes since the cookies and they've all been great.

love of blackberries. because i can eat them all up. so i've made blackberry pie and the best ice cream i think i've ever made. really, i'm so pleased - especially since its a mashup of a bunch of different recipes so i had no idea how it was going to come out. and because its not my usual ice cream formula - no eggs, no cooking - its so easy it actually feels like cheating!

to make the ice cream, purée three quarters of the blackberries with the cream cheese, sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. stir in the heavy cream and remaining blackberries. chill completely, then freeze in an ice-cream maker.

i am allergic to strawberries. strawberry seeds actually. yeah, i know. right? sucks to be me. and you know why? because oregon strawberries are apparently the bomb-diggity of the strawberry world. but shawn LOVES strawberries so having also heard stories of the wonder of oregon strawberries, he was very interested in partaking. after some thought and formulating a plan, to market we went. we returned with a flat of the loveliest looking and smelling strawberries i'd ever seen and i got to work. i have, after all, been married to this man for 11 years and think he's pretty swell. if he wanted strawberrystuffs, he'd get strawberrystuffs:

strawberry black pepper jam

brown butter banana strawberry bread

strawberry infused bourbon & rye

strawberry ice cream

and strawberry pie

its been, let's say, a rough week to be a girl. baked goods definitely would've helped my mood. but no, there were no baked goods to be had that didn't contain strawberries. the pie smell emanating from the oven is making me completely batty. once or twice during the processing of all these strawberries, i found an extra large one and cut away the entire seedy flesh, rinsed and ate it. SO GOOD. but no, no partaking of the baked goods or the fresh, fragrant strawberries. i'm now a little twitchy.

this morning i tweeted/posted this picture to instagram. i had a bunch of people ask for the recipe so i just decided to post it here. its my go to recipe for muffins - its incredibly versatile and is perfect for summer fruits - berries, peaches, cherries... (but i've also made it with apples, pears and rhubarb.)

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup fruit, 1 tbsp water and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing fruit with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until fruit has broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and snot-like, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk/sour cream and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup fruit into flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy.

3. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked fruit mixture into center of each mound of batter. Sprinkle Turbinado/Raw Sugar over the tops - I kind of go overboard with this step. I like 'em crunchy.

4. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving. And yum.

i didn't want to make rhubarb pie again this week but i wanted to bake something with rhubarb. and then i remembered this recipe, which i'd wanted to try forever. i made a few slight changes and baked it in a well buttered spring pan. crumbly tart cakey love.

this is part of what i cooked and baked this weekend. rhubarb pie, sourdough bread and roasted parsnip soup. although shawn is the shampton industries cook and i am the baker, there are exceptions. i am the soup, sauce, risotto and roux maker. things that require patience and stirring. i love it. and this weekend's soup was especially satisfying. i looked at about 10 recipes and the just went at it. and well, it was delish.

here's an approximation of the recipe:

4-5 lbs pounds parsnips (peeled and chopped)

one large yellow onion (diced)

4 apples (cored, peeled and chopped)

4 baking potatoes (peeled and chopped)

4-5 slices of bacon

1 cup of leeks (sliced)

one bunch of fresh chives

2 stalks of celery (chopped)

10-12 cups chicken stock

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

roast the parsnips (i just tossed them in olive oil and put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 425.)

saute the onion in olive oil, add the roasted parsnips and coat well. pour half the chicken stock in the pot.

in a separate pan, cook the bacon. once its cooked, set it aside and use the rendered bacon fat to saute the leeks and celery. once cooked, put in the pot with the onions and parsnips.

add the potatoes, apples and chives.

chop the bacon and toss it in the pot.

season with salt and pepper.

keep adding stock as it cooks to obtain the desired thickness. once its been cooking for HOURS, blend it to get rid of chunks.

shawn & i went to the farmer's market for the first time this year. it was awesome. we sampled a bunch of tasty treats, bought enough veggies for meals for the next few days and rhubarb for pie. for my first pie of the season.

we also ate pie. we stopped at the lauretta jean's booth. we talked a guy, i think his name was noah, about the evils of using shortening in pie crust. yeah, i understand, a buttercrust can't be vegan. i get it. i really do. but to me, pie is all about the crust. a flaky, flavorful crust. and nothing beats butter for a flaky, flavorful crust. lose the butter, lose the soul of the pie. and lauretta jean's crust looked buttery and awesome. we split a meatball & mozzarella hand pie and a mini chocolate pie. both were so good i told shawn that i wanted to go back and totally inappropriately hug noah. shawn, because he's my husband, he loves me and agrees with me wholeheartedly on the issue of pie crust, understood completely.

i woke up knowing i wanted something for dessert the other day. what to make? but we'd had our share of cupcakes and tarts and cake lately. sorbet seemed like just the thing. blood oranges have been plentiful at the market lately so, blood orange sorbet. i glanced at a few recipes and then just winged it.

4 lbs blood oranges

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

juice the oranges. cut the peels of 2 of the oranges into smaller pieced and set aside. bring the sugar, water and orange peels to a boil and immediately remove from heat. strain out the orange peel and cool completely. mix with the orange juice and chill at least an hour. pour into your ice cream maker and make it according to the maker's instructions. (if you don't have an ice cream maker you can just put it in the freezer in an airtight container until it hardens - 3 or 4 hours.)

about shana

shana is a wearer of knee socks, lover of pie, horror movies and shiny things. she writes about horror and other things, makes pie and shiny things in portland, oregon, where she lives with her husband, shawn (aka shampton). she is the vintage jewelry and yoyo obsessed woman behind the cookoorikoo curtain. email me at cookoorikoo@gmail.com.